Category Archives: US immigration

Guatemala’s economy buoyed by record $15bn sent home from workers overseas

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Critics accuse the country’s government of doing nothing to stop the ‘escape valve’ of migration as it covers up their lack of spending

The amount of money Guatemalans living abroad send home to their families reached record levels in 2021. Remittances rose to more than $15bn (£11bn) in 2021, an increase of 35% on the previous year.

The unprecedented rise prompted experts to question the political will to tackle the migration crisis when remittances from the US contribute so much to the Guatemalan economy.

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World’s poorest bear brunt of climate crisis: 10 underreported emergencies

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Care International report highlights ‘deep injustice’ neglected by world’s media, as extreme weather along with Covid wipes out decades of progress

From Afghanistan to Ethiopia, about 235 million people worldwide needed assistance in 2021. But while some crises received global attention, others are lesser known.

Humanitarian organisation Care International has published its annual report of the 10 countries that had the least attention in online articles in five languages around the world in 2021, despite each having at least 1 million people affected by conflict or climate disasters.

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Trump’s border wall and the slow decay of American soil | Carlos Sanchez

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The ‘big, beautiful wall’ has kept US citizens away from the no man’s land it created – and in effect ceded territory to Mexico

Several miles south of the small town of San Juan, Texas, beyond acres of onion fields, orange groves and other cash crops sits a historic cemetery and the site of the beginning of a slow decay of American soil.

I hadn’t been to this area for more than a year because of the pandemic, and I was startled at how different this remote part of Texas had become. The most obvious change is the steel 18ft-high bollard fencing, among the last vestiges of Donald Trump’s glorious border wall with Mexico.

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‘A lot of abuse for little pay’: how US farming profits from exploitation and brutality

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Two dozen conspirators forced workers to pay fees for travel and housing while forcing them to work for little to no pay

In June, a farm worker from Mexico, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, was transported through a trafficking network from Monterey to work on farms in Georgia.

They paid the traffickers 20,000 pesos, about $950, loaned from their mother, taking frequent trips back and forth to Monterey, before being told it was safe to leave. Then they were finally transported across the border.

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Remain in Mexico: migrants face deadly peril as Biden restores Trump policy

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The US has struck a deal with Mexico to make asylum seekers wait south side of the border while their applications are processed

The Biden administration’s move to revive Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy will subject thousands of people to “enormous suffering” and leave them vulnerable to kidnap and rape as they languish in dangerous Mexican border cities, migration advocates have warned.

After reaching a deal with Mexico, the US will by 6 December start returning asylum seekers from other Latin American countries to Mexico where they will be obliged to wait while their case is assessed.

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US border agents engaged in ‘shocking abuses’ against asylum seekers, report finds

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Revealed: documents released after six years of legal tussles uncover over 160 cases of misconduct and abuse

Shocking instances of sexual and physical abuse of asylum seekers at the southern US border by federal officers have been uncovered by Human Rights Watch, after a years-long battle to wrestle the information from the Department of Homeland Security under freedom of information laws.

A stash of redacted documents released to the human rights group after six years of legal tussles uncover more than 160 cases of misconduct and abuse by leading government agencies, notably Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and US Border Patrol. The papers record events between 2016 and 2021 that range from child sexual assault to enforced hunger, threats of rape and brutal detention conditions.

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A nurse’s journey from treating Covid in Brazil to death in the US desert

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Lenilda dos Santos left her home in rural Amazonia, part of a South American exodus driven by a coronavirus-era depression

As coronavirus tore through the Valley of Paradise, a farm-flanked backwater in the Brazilian Amazon, Lenilda dos Santos, a nurse technician, stood on the frontline clutching hands most feared to touch.

“She was a warrior during the pandemic,” said Lucineide Oliveira, a friend and colleague at the town’s small, understaffed hospital. “She’d say: ‘If we have to die, we’ll die. But we must fight.’”

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Canada invited Chelsea Manning to country just so she could be thrown out

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Bizarre request made ahead of immigration hearing for Manning, whose previous attempts to enter Canada have been denied

Canadian government lawyers recently invited US whistleblower Chelsea Manning to travel to a hearing in Montreal – so that border agents could then physically remove her from the country.

The bizarre request, which was eventually denied by an adjudicator, was made ahead of an immigration hearing set to begin on Thursday for Manning, whose previous attempts to enter Canada have been denied.

This article was amended on 7 October 2021 to correct a city name that was misspelled.

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Senior state department official calls Biden’s deportation of Haitians illegal

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Harold Koh, a legal adviser and Obama administration veteran, criticises use of health protocol to expel thousands of migrants

A senior legal adviser in the state department has accused the Biden administration of deporting Haitians illegally through the use of a public health law.

Harold Koh, a veteran of the Obama administration, had been due to leave government service to take up a teaching position at Oxford University. He wrote a letter to the state department leadership, lambasting the expulsions of thousands of Haitians in recent weeks.

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Biden is treating migrants little better than Trump did. That’s shameful | Xochitl Oseguera

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We thought the days when our country treated asylum-seekers with cruelty and disdain might be ending. This month we learned we were wrong

We thought the days when our country treated asylum-seekers with cruelty and disdain might be ending. This month we learned we were wrong.

Most of us were shaken and horrified, and the country rightfully embarrassed, by images of US border patrol agents on horseback attacking asylum seekers, including at least one child, in Texas. Thankfully, that has been stopped and an investigation is now underway. We need more than an investigation, though: we need to know that nothing like that will ever happen again.

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Biden officials move to protect Dreamers brought to US as children – live

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Earlier, the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, pleaded with healthcare workers to get vaccinated against Covid-19 before an end-of-day deadline which could bring staff shortages at hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities.

The Biden administration’s announcement of a new approach to protecting Dreamers from deportation is meant to “bulletproof” existing measures guarding against litigation, a leading expert said.

“Dreamers” are undocumented migrants living in the US who were brought to the country as children. Their fate has long been held in limbo by deadlock in Congress over immigration reform.

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Haiti deportations justified because of Covid, Biden homeland secretary says

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The US homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, on Sunday defended the Biden administration’s decision to send thousands of Haitians to a home country they fled because of natural disasters and political turmoil.

Related: White House criticizes border agents who rounded up migrants on horseback

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‘People will pay’ for harsh treatment of migrants at Texas border, says Biden – video

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Joe Biden has said there will be repercussions for border patrol agents over their harsh treatment of Haitian migrants at the southern US border between Texas and Mexico, calling it an embarrassment to the nation. Images of agents on horseback corralling migrants in Del Rio as thousands tried to enter the US drew international attention. The president said he bears ultimate responsibility for the situation

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Biden administration to reopen migrant detention camp near Guantánamo Bay prison

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Immigration authorities seek bids for contractors to run migrant operations center on naval base

The Biden administration is preparing to reopen a migrant detention camp on Guantánamo Bay in the wake of a surge of migrants and asylum seekers on the southern border.

Related: How thousands of Haitian migrants ended up at the Texas border

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Haitian migrants and refugees cross the Rio Grande – in pictures

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In the past few weeks more than 12,000 Haitians have arrived in Del Rio, Texas, gathering in a huge makeshift camp. Many have to cross the Rio Grande from Del Rio to Ciudad Acuña to seek food and supplies in Mexico to bring back to family members waiting in the US. Others are crossing back into Mexico to avoid deportation flights

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Migrants continue to cross into US as Kamala Harris criticises treatment by border patrol – video

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Thousands of Haitians encamped under and near a bridge in the town of Del Rio faced a ramped-up US exclusion effort on Tuesday, with six flights to their homeland. More than 6,000 migrants had been removed by Monday, officials said.

Asked on Tuesday about footage of the incident, Kamala Harris said: 'What I saw depicted, those individuals on horseback treating human beings the way they were, was horrible'


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Kamala Harris on expulsions at US border: ‘Human beings should never be treated that way’

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Vice-president criticizes treatment of Haitians, who are being removed after attempted to flee dire conditions

Kamala Harris and Chuck Schumer, have added their voices to criticism of the treatment of Haitian migrants at the US-Mexico border who were corralled by US border patrol agents riding horses and allegedly wielding reins like whips.

Related: White House criticizes border agents who rounded up migrants on horseback

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White House criticizes border agents who rounded up migrants on horseback

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Press secretary voices concern over widely shared images as more than 6,000 migrants removed from Texas encampment

The White House on Monday responded critically to widely shared images of US border patrol agents in Texas rounding up Haitian migrants on horseback.

Related: Haitian migrants intend to remain at Texas border despite plan to expel them

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Boris Johnson welcomes decision to open UK-US travel ‘in time for Thanksgiving’ – video

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Boris Johnson has welcomed the US decision to lift Covid-19 travel restrictions to allow fully vaccinated passengers from the UK and most EU countries to travel into the country from early November. The move signals the end of a travel ban imposed by Donald Trump more than 18 months ago in the early stages of the pandemic, and comes after intense lobbying from Brussels and London

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US to lift Covid travel ban for vaccinated passengers from UK and most of EU

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US will lift Covid-19 travel restrictions starting in November, which will also affect travellers from China, Brazil, South Africa and India

The US will lift Covid-19 travel restrictions to allow fully vaccinated passengers from the UK and most European Union (EU) countries to travel into the country from early November, the White House has announced.

Related: Airline shares soar on US plans to relax Covid travel rules

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